TRUMBULL -- They came. They sparred. But whether they swayed any voters remains to be seen.

Trumbull Town Council member Martha Jankovic-Mark, the Democratic candidate for first selectman, and Republican First Selectman Timothy Herbst got to the point Tuesday night before their audience of 150 Trumbullites at Madison Middle School. They have different outlooks.

Jankovic-Mark, an attorney who specializes in tax law, trust and estate planning, says she wants to grow the town's commercial tax base to offset the tax burden on residential property owners. One avenue worth exploring, she said, is the town's current five-story height limit on commercial buildings.

"We need to develop our commercial tax base and grow it," Jankovic-Mark said in response to a question on economic development that League of Women Voters moderator Gloria Francesconi read from among the audience submissions.

Jankovic-Mark also said she wanted to "increase the number of sidewalks and bike paths and draw all of the greenways together," because that would give potential businesses a reason to locate in Trumbull.

Although both candidates used all their well-learned politesse, there were moments during the 90-minute debate when their claws came out.

Herbst accused Jankovic-Mark of being negative and being a holdout on issues that ought not be controversial, like the formation of a committee to explore combining the town's police, fire and emergency medical services into a single communications dispatch network. Jankovic-Mark countered that her abstention on a Trumbull Town Council vote on the issue along with the appointment of the town's Emergency Medical Service director sprung from the fact that the town's EMS Commission had not approved the new director.

"The charter was not followed," Jankovic-Mark said. "You can't not follow (the) procedure and the law you pushed."

Herbst fired back that this was the second debate in which Jankovic-Mark accused him of "violations of the charter (and) I challenge you, if you believe there was a violation of the charter: File an ethics complaint ... with the ethics commission."

On the question of what the most pressing issues to Trumbull are, Herbst said achieving a combined police, fire and EMS communications center is his highest public safety priority. The Sandy Hook School massacre showed that "seconds do matter," he said. There were "four minutes between the 911" and "police arriving," he said.

In Trumbull, the police department, the town's volunteer fire departments and EMS all operate on separate communications systems. For the town to respond in the most effective way to an emergency, Herbst said, communication has to be "immediate, deliberate and consistent."

Both candidates strove to portray themselves as tightfisted with taxpayers' money.

"Being lectured by you about fiscal responsibility is like being lectured by Tony Soprano on following the law," Herbst said, as his supporters in the audience applauded.

Jankovic-Mark claimed Herbst does not know how to get along with people who may not agree with him. A Jankovic-Mark administration, she said, would treat everyone with fairness and show respect for constituents by requiring a public-comment period at the start of every municipal government meeting.